Kevin sat at the edge of the couch, hands clasped, leaning forward like a man about to negotiate his own survival.
"You're making this bigger than it is," he said carefully.
Chloe let out a slow breath. There it was—the attempt to shrink her feelings into something manageable. Gaslighting, dressed as reasoning.
"It's not like I don't love you," he continued. "I was struggling. You were busy. I didn't—" He exhaled sharply, frustrated. "I didn't feel like us anymore."
She folded her arms, watching him. He wasn't lying. But he wasn't telling the whole truth either.
"You didn't feel like us, so you cheated?" she asked, voice calm, measured.
Kevin groaned, rubbing his temples. "It's not just cheating—"
"It is," she cut in, sharp but steady. "It's exactly that."
Silence stretched between them.
He shook his head, tried again. "Chloe, we have Carter. We have a life. That should be enough to—"
"Enough to what, Kevin?" Her voice didn't rise, but the weight of it settled between them like a final decision already made. "Enough to pretend? To ignore? To forgive something I don't forgive?"
His jaw clenched. "You're willing to throw everything away over one mistake?"
She blinked at him, slow. A mistake. As if it had been one careless moment. As if it hadn't been months, choices, actions built on deception.
"You're willing to pretend it wasn't a betrayal?" she countered.
Kevin sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. "I don't want to lose you," he admitted, voice raw.
Chloe's throat tightened. She wished that still mattered. That she still cared enough to believe in fixing this.
But she didn't.
Not anymore.
Because her line had been drawn long before this conversation.
She inhaled, steadying herself. "Then you shouldn't have lost me to begin with."
Kevin's breath faltered.
And with that, Chloe turned toward the hallway.
She wasn't angry. She wasn't broken. She was done.